Rowena Fong, PhD, the Ruby Lee Piester Centennial Professor Emerita in Services to Children and Families at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work, has received the 2021 Distinguished Career Achievement Award from the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR).
Presented by one of the premier social work associations in the nation, this award recognizes outstanding scholarship, rigorous approach to social work research, innovation, impact on the profession, and major contributions to social work knowledge development.
Fong is an inaugural SSWR Fellow and served as president of SSWR between 2009 and 2013. She was inducted in the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare in 2013, and was founding co-chair of AASWSW Grand Challenges Executive Committee and Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative. A former member of the Children’s Bureau’s, Child Welfare Evaluation Workgroup, of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Fong served as a board member of the North American Council on Adoptable Children and the National Advisory Board of In-Home Services.
Fong has authored more than 100 publications on the topics of post permanency preservation and supports in public child welfare systems and on transracial and inter-country adoptions.
Fong received the award at SSWR Virtual Conference on January 21, 2021.